Hundreds of supporters won the right to “Keep Denny Blaine Nude” last year and push back on a misguided attempt by Seattle Parks to add a children’s play area at the popular clothing optional hangout on the shores of Lake Washington.
Now Seattle Parks is hoping to codify Denny Blaine nudity and shape a policy supported by the residents of the park’s affluent neighborhood and the thousands of visitors who make the park part of their Seattle summer rituals.
The department will hold a meeting Thursday night on its proposed policy updates for the park that would specify and protect the importance of being nude at Denny Blaine while also creating two zones within the green space with hopes of providing a better experience for neighbors living near the busy parks property.
It is already legal to be naked anywhere in Seattle. The city’s archaic lewd conduct law crumbled thanks to a 1980s couple who got busted skinny dipping at Madison Park Beach and successfully sued City Hall.
The new proposal (PDF) for Denny Blaine includes language that would explicitly state the position for the park. “Nudity that does not amount to indecent exposure as defined by RCW 9a.88.010 or Section 6.2 of this Policy is not prohibited,” the draft policy section begins.
It would also cleave the park into two zones — Zone A near the water where visitors are invited to enjoy the space with or without a swimsuit and Zone B around the park’s entrance where visitors are asked to wear clothing or, at least, a towel.
CHS reported in December as the parks department backed off a plan to add the children’s play area paid for by an anonymous donor amid massive public outcry.
“While nudity is legal everywhere in the city, and kids spaces are great, we think this is an attempt to put our communities in conflict and displace our city’s historical queer and naturist community,” a post by the @savedennyblaine Instagram account said at the time. “There are other great places nearby for a playground.”
Seattle Parks says the new policy proposal is hoped to strike a balance for the “many members of the GLBTQ community cherish the park as a space for community gathering and expression” and park neighbors who have complained of “negative impacts of misuses of the park.”
“We are developing a policy for the park that seeks to strike a balance—keeping the park the unique and special place it is while reducing some of the adverse impacts on the surrounding neighborhood,” Seattle Parks says.
A separate meeting to discuss the policy proposal with neighbors is also being held.
Efforts around community support for the park beyond the neighborhood, meanwhile, have grown. The Friends of Denny Blaine Park group is encouraging its members to take part in public feedback at Thursday’s meeting — and also plan to attend a park clean-up party on Sunday.
Learn more at friendsofdennyblaine.org.
UPDATE: CHS requested documents from Seattle Parks to identify the anonymous donor behind the original play area plan but that request has not yet been filled. KUOW reports they have discovered that University Village mall developer Stuart Sloan had the city’s ear on doing something about the park:
Stuart Sloan, who amassed his fortune doing business in 1980s Seattle, was frustrated with the naked sunbathers at Denny Blaine Park. He texted his complaints to Mayor Bruce Harrell, according to a former city hall employee. Months later, in July 2023, a deputy mayor and Seattle Parks leader paid Sloan a visit to discuss building a playground at the park, according to the mayor’s spokesperson.
We’ve asked the city for more information about the proposed donation. In the meantime, there is no plan to establish a nude beach at tony University Village… yet.
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Yay, just what we need, more laws that aren’t enforced. I mean, everything listed in this policy happens regularly on Broadway, yet no one does a thing about any of it.
But I guess the ultra wealthy Denny Blaine residents will probably have more sway than the rest of us plebes.
What? What happens on Broadway?
Seems a strategy similar to Uncle Ike’s v Ruckus.. use of children for political or business purposes to block use. I think Ian taught us all something.
You don’t miss much.
nudity is completely legal in seattle, but we request you not be naked in this arbitrary zone “out of consideration for the surrounding neighborhood”? or what?
also “reducing some of the adverse impacts on the surrounding neighborhood”? you mean, being nude? or do they (Seattle Parks) mean all the other stuff that has nothing to do with being nude that happens in every other public space in the city?
Nudity is completely legal in Seattle isn’t exactly entirely true… simply being nude is fine BUT if someone is uncomfortable with it, finds your behavior to be stepping into lewd and is willing to lodge a formal complaint and agrees to appear in court you have to put your clothing back on… Needless to say, few people are willing to do all of that, so it’s rarely done unless the nude person is doing something really egregious.. I do recall the Leshi business district at least was willing – the world nude bicycle day ride would always stop, reclothe, ride through Leshi and then strip again once they were through… don’t know if that still happens or not, but it seems similar to what is being proposed for the park.
Still waiting to hear who the anonymous neighbor who pledged the money for the playground and is probably still trying to pull levers in City Hall to push their moral preferences on other people.
I asked and KUOW delivered a few hours later. CHS comment section really works!
WOW! That’s sooper cool.
These guys do the same I came to discover.
Owner of University Village and one of the immediate neighbors, according to a report on kuow today. Forget the name…
why even bother having a “policy” here around legal and normal conduct? last I checked the naked people weren’t regularly filtering up into the neighborhood and “impacting” the residents. People have voluntarily almost completely restricted their nudity to the lower areas for years because that’s just the way the community has (in my experience) done it, with very few exceptions. I mean, it’s skinny dipping, not skinny parking. I don’t know, maybe it’s changed in the last couple years.
I’m assuming someone in Parks is trying to throw a bone to the locals so they will stop pestering them about it. But this little nudity border is ridiculous.
“I’m assuming someone in Parks is trying to throw a bone to the locals so they will stop pestering them about it.”
No impact on locals. They support the folks who are nude.
What it is, is politics. They have to be loud so their voters appreciate them. And vote for them.
Are working class liberties being challenged again?
What does this mean?
Not this time.
They managed to Bingo. They are all being challenged. Just in different ways. It’s a pointless fracas.
Don’t these rules already apply to all parks in the city? It was bad enough that we had to show up to a public meeting just to keep our park in its current condition. I don’t love all of this unwanted attention…people should be treated like adults and not subjected to all these extra rules and regulations. There is no need to micromanage this park because a few wealthy neighbors are upset about the occasional rule breaking which also happens at all other parks and throughout the city. What a waste of city staff time and dollars.
The wealthy neighbors are used to getting their way.
There’s this. The jockstraps in gay clubs. And next thing ya know the nude bike races will get the treatment.
JMO…Some people need to grow up completely to the adult they appear to all of us to be. How is someone in Crown Hill or Queen Anne impacted? I’m on Capitol Hill. No impact here. Not a single exposed jock in sight. No banana hammocks.
One minute cons want freedom. Next they do not.
It’s because it’s THEIR freedoms they fight for and nobody else. So we fight for a beach/park and it’s some kinda groomers party??? If that is truly the case? Then the cons are at a Klan rally everytime they gather. It’s the same concept.
They ain’t groomin’, and you ain’t at a Klan rally. Yet? We still deal with this crap.
I’m a straight dude living next to a gay/elderly apartment building. You’ll be bored to death on my report. Despite the comments that evil is afoot at Pride Place(before it had broken ground and beyond). None of the doomsayers were right. Short of a couple lovers quarrels on the street in front of the gay bar, it’s been fun having the new folks in the neighborhood. The place has never been more fabulous!
I LOVE seeing the different people together all day everyday. I understand the “street kids” now. I wish everyone did. The homeless are not criminals folks. They just ain’t. They are surviving folks. That is why the behaviors. They are that desperate. NOBODY asks for that life. It simply happens one day and some folks find it better on the street than the abuse they came from. Or even a typical middle class kid you’ll see on the streets. Homelessness and the issues involved are the same for the rich and the poor. It’s survival and not much room for anything else.
I have a feeling that 20 years from now we won’t see as much of the prejudicial harassments by people who are simply ignorant. They have ZERO idea what they are talking about. Yet? They spew some really nasty venom on their issue. All of it FOX speak. Alt right radio. Hillbilly counties across ‘mercah. Things fester in information silos’. Then it comes out as hate w/o them even understanding why. Then complain about how you are a “snowflake” and “feelings” hurt easily.
Well, us progressives are different than them. But we are here for the smoke as we are an ernest people. We will fight if necessary. So that part of the “snowflake” is true. Unlike Cons who are all the same pretty much. I mean, they vote in lockstep. For the worst things like bathrooms and who’s gonna use it where and why. I guess it’s to kick peoples feet in the stalls from what I’ve heard. All of them are alt right Christian Nationalists. But not climate change. It’s “drill baby drill” anywhere we want…FREEDOM! See how that silo/ignorant stuff werx? But say it and you’ll get violence and intimidation anywhere and everywhere. Even, and especially, at polling places. These are the people who refuse to live and let live as they say they do. FREEDOM! In turn they are the ones who vote for a mobster to run the country. As long as they are promised everything they want to hear.
I’m still waiting for coal to make a comeback. I’m still waiting for infrastructure week. And so on.
These pathetic humans in that cult are the ones that need 24/7 supervision.
Side story I find most concerning: a wealthy citizen’s private text to the mayor can transform a park, leaving taxpayers on the hook for future upkeep. How many other city projects get approval this way?
I’ve never felt the need to run around the neighborhood naked, or even at the beach, but knowing that it will piss off the wealthy neighbors who feel that their money buys the ability to dictate what’s acceptable for us poors, I say fuck them and their illegal to enforce imaginary zone restrictions. I am going to need to stock up for sunscreen this summer.
I can’t afford beachfront property, but I live close enough that I regularly walk my dog near there. I hope they enjoy watching my extremely pale, overweight, middle-aged naked bod strolling through their streets twice a day.
There are plenty of other spaces along the lake to add playgrounds (Madrona, Leschi, Mt Baker beaches, etc), but of course that’s not what this is really about. It’s really just that a few ultra-rich neighbors don’t like nude swimming.